


Little Fang

by Lycadius



Series: Little Fang [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dante Raises Nero, Dante is SO traumatized and doesn't even know it, Dante is tired and sad but this kid makes everything a little brighter okay?, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Angst, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm going to be adding a lot of tags as I go along I'm so sorry tag wranglers, Trans Nero, Uncle Dante (Devil May Cry), also all the hybrids are ADHD too ig, because fuck it why not, it's not really Uncle Dante but you'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2020-01-12 02:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18437156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lycadius/pseuds/Lycadius
Summary: Dante gets used to having a kid around, and Nero gets used to living with someone.They both get used to having someone they can call family.A collection of random, non-chronological snippets.





	1. Sometimes Dante Worries About Fragility

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't published anything on ao3 yet and I'm currently in DMC hell, so I thought I might as well shove these babies on here as well. Dunno if I'll ever really do anything more with these, but who knows.  
> Comments greatly appreciated!

Dante exhaled heavily through his nose, eyes locked on the cracked ceiling above him. Nero was fast asleep, probably thanks to the five slices of pizza the 8 year old had scarfed down. The only real issue was the fact that after polishing them off, said child had then sleepily turned towards where Dante was laying out on the couch next to him, crawled on top of him, and then proceeded to shove his face in the older man's shoulder and pass out. Leaving him in this entirely foreign situation.

 

Dante could only thank his lucky stars that Lady hadn't dropped by yet from her trip to catch him looking all stupid and awkward over being _trapped on a couch by a napping child who he could probably bench press like 1000 of_ and started making fun of him— or even worse, take a picture. She would probably use to as blackmail to try and get her money back. And it might even work. Seriously though what was he supposed to do! The kid was so small and so fragile and he was just snoring away on top of Dante like he wasn't even worried! Which he should be! Right?? ...Right? He didn't even know. He would never hurt this child, no, absolutely not, but... what if he lost focus? What if he forgot about his own strength? He didn't want to find out if the kid had enhanced healing like that. No. He didn't ever want to find out, really.

 

As if in response to the devil hunter's internal panic, Nero shifted and made some stupidly cute snuffling noise into Dante's neck that made Dante's stomach flip and his eyes tingle with some strange and intense emotion. Sighed once more, he wrapped an arm around the boy to keep him secure against his chest before leaning up to grab his coat from the back of the couch and throwing it across the both of them as a sort of makeshift blanket. Settling back in, he tucked the both of them in and absently tried to kick off his boots (which did not work at all) before just giving up entirely and closing his eyes, feeling a bit tired himself. Strange how comforting the warm weight on his chest was. And if he gently raised his free hand to hover above Nero's head, not quite touching him like some kind of doofus, that's no one's business but his own.

 

Okay but seriously, how did a sleeping child make him so tired? Whatever. Might as well.

 

And he supposed if Lady did come back and take a picture of them— well, it might not hurt to ask for a copy. Just to embarrass Nero with in the future of course.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Lady did end up dropping by Devil May Cry in time to catch them while they're still sprawled out across the couch, but the picture she took was only half for blackmail purposes.

 

They _were_  kind of cute like that. Even if she _was_  pretty sure they were both drooling.


	2. Paper and Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante just wants to know what his favorite little devil is up to.

"I'm back," Dante called out as he entered Devil May Cry, practically tearing off his jacket and flinging it vaguely in the direction of his chair while simultaneously trying to untie one of his boots. Damn it, he would have to get a new pair unless he could find someone to repair the giant hole stabbing straight through the left foot. The job today hadn't been particularly hard, but the recent rain combined with the unexpected number of demons left him a tired and muddy mess. He almost didn't even have the energy to whine about the cold mud and water that had seeped into his pants and turned his white hair into a color better suited for a very old and very dirty dish rag. Almost. It was pretty annoying and he was pretty whiny.

 

As fumbled over his stupidly knotted laces, almost tripping over himself _twice,_ he listened for the sound of rapid footsteps that signified the approach of a little body about to come knocking into his legs, but the sound never came. That gave him pause.

  
Finally managing to shuck off his annoying boots, he hesitated before deciding to forgo removing Ebony and Ivory's holsters in order to instead focus on actually looking around. Where was the kid?

 

"Hellooooo?"

  
  
This time he got a response.

  
  
"Shhh!"

  
  
The sound of Nero's childish voice, despite the annoyance lacing his tone, caused him to relax. Child located. He chuckled a bit and continued on with his mission to remove his grimy gear, now much more relaxed.

 

Finishing up, and feeling an incredulous expression taking over his face, he made his way over to where Nero's voice came from. "Oh yeah? Who're you telling to hush?"

  
  
Nero, hunched over something on the floor next to the couch that Dante couldn't see from his angle, grumbled a bit and then shot a poisonous look at the older man. Dante simply raised his eyebrows at the young white haired boy. "Really?"

  
  
Nero turned back towards his object of focus before letting out a very put-upon sigh and facing Dante fully, his irritated expression looking extremely adorable on his chubby little face.

  
  
"I'm _busy_ Dante, I'm trying to focus. Stop being so loud."

  
  
Dante absolutely pouted.

  
  
"I just wanted to know why my favorite little devil didn't welcome me home!"

  
  
Nero scoffed, but his cheeks turned pink and he went to go rub under his nose before seemingly realizing something and putting his still-hidden hand back down. Dante closed in to try and catch a glimpse of what it was, but the 8 year old gave him another dirty look and quickly hunched back over whatever the hell he had. Okay, now Dante was really curious.

  
  
"What'cha got over there?"

  
  
Nero tensed, "Why don't you mind your own business?"

  
  
Dante gasped dramatically and clutched a hand over his heart, then decided after a beat that sprawling dramatically over the dull wooden floorboards actually sounded really great right now and did just that, "You wound me, Nero! Look at what you've done! You're killing me!"

  
  
Nero very quietly made an amused noise despite having his back turned towards Dante.

  
  
Dante, still on his back, pushed himself a little closer towards Nero. "C'mon kid, I'm dying of curiosity now. Tell meee." He waited until the young boy peered over his shoulder at him before giving him a wounded look and fluttering his eyelashes. Nero, as exasperated as he looked, wavered a bit. Dante went in for the kill.

  
  
"Pretty please? With whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles on top?"

  
  
Nero wavered once more.

  
  
He picked up whatever he was focusing on (which looked to be a piece of paper) and pressed it against his chest, hiding whatever was on it from Dante's view. Shuffling around on his knees a bit to turn fully towards Dante's prone figure, the young boy squinted carefully at him, a surprisingly guarded look in his eyes.

 

"Promise you won't laugh."

  
  
"I promise. Well, as long as it isn't a joke or something, because—"

  
  
"Dante!"

  
  
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry kid. I promise I won't laugh."

Nero hesitated before realizing that Dante was being genuine. Then he carefully passed the facedown sheet of paper to Dante, refusing to make eye contact the whole time. Dante casually flipped it over and held it up above him and proceeded to immediately feel himself freeze, his breath catching in his chest.

  
  
The sheet of paper was actually a drawing. Of them. Of all of them.

 

A family portrait of all of them.

 

He very carefully kept his hand from clenching and wrinkling the piece of art.

 

It was done in pen, 'cause Dante didn't have any crayons or other art utensils or whatever because he didn't think he would need them, and he can tell who each and every person's supposed to be. His father is in his devil form, which makes sense because he'd never shown Nero a photo of his father in human form, but left a bad taste in his mouth reeking of Fortuna, so he decided to rectify that ASAP. His father was standing behind everyone and with his mother by his side. The he rest of them were lined up in front. Lady, smiling a small smile and standing next to Dante, who was holding a little drawn Nero's hand, who was standing next to… Vergil.

 

His eyes were locked on the scribbled picture of his brother, standing side-by-side to his own penned form, his slicked-back hair all wonky and his face made into an exaggerated scowl, looking almost especially comical next to the grins drawn on all the faces surrounding him.

 

...For someone who had never seen him before, the kid had really hit the nail on the head. Dante couldn't tell if he wanted to laugh or cry.

 Nero had that effect on him a lot.

 

"...This is really good Nero."

 

Nero's eyes shot up from where they'd been burning a hole in the floor and gave Dante's face a searching look. Dante didn't turn to make eye contact, mildly worried about what would happen if he leaned his head too far one way while feeling choked up like this and wow okay he was surprisingly emotional.

 

"You're," Nero huffed, "You're not just sayin' that to save my feelings or anything like that, ri—" Dante cut him off before he could finish, gently placing the artwork on top of the couch before reaching out with his other hand to bundle the startled boy up to his chest, loudly proclaiming that he was a proud devil hunter and would _never_ lie about that kind of thing, and rolling them across the floor until the younger boy was a giggling mess and Dante had started laughing as well.

 

Pressing his face against the tiny head of white hair still smothering giggles against his dirty shirt, Dante couldn't help but thank whoever was listening for letting him find this boy. This second chance. This treasure who smelled like fresh young life and family and _home_. He was truly thankful.

 

"It looks like we got a real artist on our hands! I'm serious! I have to go get my shoes repaired tomorrow, you can come with and we can stop by the store and pick up some stuff for you! Make a day of it!"

 

Nero immediately started arguing against it, talking about how it was a waste of money, but Dante just waved off his concerns, fluidly standing up and hoisting the kid up under his arm like a sack, "You gotta have some things other than the TV and books to distract you, it'll be good for your brain or somethin'."

 

"I don't think that's how that works," Nero half-heartedly grumbled, kicking his legs back and forth through the air as Dante made his way towards the kitchen, grabbing the piece of artwork off of the couch as well.

 

"You're a little kid, what do you know about brains," he teased, making a face at Nero. The eight year old immediately bristled.

 

"Shut up! _You're_ a little kid!"

 

Dante just through his head back and laughed, hiking Nero a bit higher. "C'mon, that's no way to treat someone who's about to make you pancakes for dinner, now, is it?"

 

Nero immediately pulled an about face and looked up at Dante with the best puppy eyes he could muster. "Pancakes?"

 

"Pancakes."

 

The child let out a cheer and immediate started wriggling out of Dante's grasp, readily ignoring the man's undignified yelping to instead focus on tearing off towards the kitchen. He finally just let the kid go in order to save his poor kidneys from anymore bony elbows, content with watching the silver little hellion scramble off, yelling about putting blueberries in his all the while.

 

And somehow the sound of Nero jumping up and down to turn the kitchen light switch on accompanied by the atrocious noise that was undoubtedly caused by him dragging a chair up to the counter made the bubble of warmth and happiness nestled in between Dante's chest grow that much bigger, making his chest tight and filling his lungs and throat to the brim.

 

He rubbed the back of his neck, kind of flustered by his own feelings, before heading through the doorway as well, making sure to carefully stick Nero's picture up on the no-longer bare fridge as he went.


	3. Young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That was far too young.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VERY SORRY IF YOU'RE GETTING WEIRD NOTIFS, I HAD TO EDIT SOME STUFF 'CAUSE I'M DUMB.
> 
> Considering I've got like two more chapters already done aside from this one, I should probably figure out a posting schedule.

It was pure chance that brought Dante to the city of Fortuna. He knew vaguely of the city, mostly that it was filled with a lot of big Sparda fans (which is kind of weird since people aren't usually such big fans of demonic rulers, even the relatively nice ones) and that they'd got their own people that could hunt any devils that appeared in the area. So it was a real surprise when he got a call about a job that somebody wanted help with pretty nearby the place.

  
  
The job was unusual, to say the least. The people who called him in almost hadn't, but decided they didn't want to deal with "those freaky Fortuna cult weirdos" and looked him up instead. Kind of strange, but whatever. The demons on the other hand, despite not too difficult to handle, were what really got to him. And it wasn't just the fact that one of them managed to tear his poor jacket. It was the fact that he'd never seen anything like them before. Sure there's plenty of different kinds of demons and he definitely hadn't seen all of them, but these just had a strange vibe to them. They felt... weird.

  
  
Ignoring the fact that he found his own thoughts pretty stupid and off the wall and would probably write off anyone who tried to say the same thing to him as a loon, he figured the best way to deal with it was to check out the strange island city itself and see if anything was up.

  
  
Getting into the walled-off city wasn't too difficult, even if they did give him some unnerving looks. And even if they had made a fuss and tried to keep him out, it's not like it would've stopped him, he thought, amused.

  
  
The city itself was pretty nice, architecture-wise, but nothing really stood out to him in the beginning. It just looked weirdly medieval, but that seemed common enough, all things considered. People really liked old stuff.

  
  
Just as he was about to head toward the vague black tower he could see in the distance, a flash of white up ahead caught his attention, and what he saw drove every other thought from his mind.

  
  
Sitting on the stone steps of a large building not even a stone's throw away from him, was a child with bright white hair reading a book.

  
  
_A baby Vergil,_ he thought incredulously, and then immediately launched himself onto the nearest roof.

  
  
Definitely not hiding or anything.

  
...He was totally hiding.

  
  
_What on Earth._

  
  
_No, seriously, **what?!?**_

  
  
He hesitantly crawled towards the edge of the roof and peered down back towards the mystery brat.

  
  
The kid was no longer paying attention to the book, instead turning this way and that, as if looking for something.

  
  
Well if he wasn't sweating before, he definitely was now.

  
  
It was just a kid with bright white hair, that's all. Haha. That's all.

 

  
  
The kid looked up towards where he was laying flat on the roof, and he almost had a heart attack.

 

  
  
With the unfriendly scowl on their face and their bright blue eyes, they really _did_ look like a baby Vergil. He hurriedly ducked back down, not even caring that he ended up smashing his face into the shingles.

  
  
_Why did the roofs in this place have to be all stupid shapes?_

  
  
God, what if the kid saw him?

 

  
...Wait, why did it matter?

  
  
Face still pressed against the rough shingles, Dante took a moment to just _contemplate_ what he was doing with his life.

 

Could the kid really sense him? Or at least tell that something was there? That was definitely an indication of not-so-human ancestry. He slowly looked back over the edge of the roof.

 

And made eye contact with the child.

 

_Ohsweetheavens—_

 

The child gave him a baffled look.

 

Dante shakily smiled and waved.

 

The kid looked around, confused, before looking back up at him.

 

_This is so stupid._

 

Dante pinched the bridge of his nose, before just dropping off of the roof, landing not too far from in front of the kid. "Hi."

 

The kid blinked wildly. "Hi."

 

 _Great, fantastic,_ he coughed and rubbed his curled up fingers against his earlobe, feeling a bit ridiculous about being nervous to talk to a bit child.

 

"Uh, my name's Dante. What's yours?"

 

The kid seemed to have gotten over any shock, and was now staring at Dante through narrowed eyes.

 

"...Nero. You're not from here."

 

"Not, I'm not, I was just—"

 

"Are you my dad?"

 

Dante felt like he'd been sucker punched.

 

"No! No. I. No, I'm definitely not your father."

 

The kid— _Nero_ — Nero gave him a suspicious look. "You're the only person I've ever seen with white hair before."

 

Dante cleared his throat, chest tight. "I have— had—" _a twin brother_ "—other family. With white hair."

 

God Verge, what did you _do?_

 

 _The kid looked like seven or eight years old, right,_ he thought, still a little dazed. That would've put Vergil at around eighteen, the year before the Temen-ni-gru, and he guessed it made sense that Vergil would visit the city their dad used to rule over or something, probably researching daddy dearest. God. Eighteen. No one that kid should be having sex! He was like a whole entire teenager! And his _brother!_ This was officially one of the worst things to think about, ever. Eighteen.  ** _Eighteen._** That was far too young.

 

And he might've gotten someone pregnant.

 

Judging from the way his sense tingled vaguely at his proximity with the tiny Vergil lookalike, it was looking less like a 'might' and more like an certainty. The kid really did look like them as children. He felt his skin prickly from the memories flashing through his head.

 

A huff from the aforementioned kid broke him out of it. Dante cleared his throat again. "Yeah, so, if you could do me a favor and take me to your mom or something, that would be great."

 

The kids expression grew stormy.

 

"I don't have one, she left me at the orphanage when I was a baby."

 

Dante felt like his whole body had been doused in ice water, and then immediately his temperature skyrocketed. He blinked hard, took in a deep breath, and then slowly let his temperature drop back down in time with his long exhale.

 

"Yeah? That sucks."

 

The kid was staring at him again. Whoops.

 

"So. Uh. Taking me to where you're living? Or, just... Yeah."

 

  
_Oh,_ he thought a bit frantically, _I think I'm gonna adopt a kid._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having too much fun jumping around the timeline lol.
> 
> But yeah! Please leave a comment, even if it's just a smiley face, but especially if you notice something wrong like a me messing up the tense (which will probably happen frequently. I don't really tend to read back over my work much).  
> Speaking of, do you guys like me replying to all of your comments? I'm a bit worried about being to much and causing some clutter lol.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading!!


	4. It Was My Evil Twin, Actually

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No, seriously.

Moving out of Fortuna was definitely weird, but he couldn't exactly complain. Nero wasn't a big fan of the hoods and the religion that seemed to seep into every corner of the place. He had never had a family before and he was pretty sure that's what the white haired old man in front of him was. He had seemed kind of freaked out when Nero asked if he was his dad, which had sent a pang through his chest, but they were still related, and pretty closely at that. Nero hadn't exactly missed the fact that they were practically identical in coloration.  
  
  
The lady who ran the orphanage was pretty hostile towards Dante for some reason, probably because he was an outsider. She gave the older man all kinds of looks from under her hood, but Nero was pretty sure the man missed all of them. After a few quiet words between them, Nero was shooed off by the matron and told to "go play somewhere else until we're done." He made eye contact with Dante at that, and the man rolled his eyes. Nero coughed to cover his laugh and then hightailed it before before the bitter lady could turn on him. Of course, he immediately planted himself on the bench near the door once they had gone into the office.  
  
  
He couldn't hear everything they were saying, but he wasn't about to get right up against the door and risk being caught snooping. Whatever they ended up talking about took a while for them to settle, and Nero took no small amount of delight in the yelling that started up every once in a while.  
  
  
They came out not long after the yelling had stopped, and the relaxed look on Dante's face and the bitter and suspicious one on the matron's made his insides churn. As much as Nero hated the orphanage and the dumb city, he still wasn't sure how he would feel about being adopted and leaving this town. Kyrie and Credo's faces flashed through his mind, and the feeling grew bigger and more tangled. He pretended he hadn't been trying to listen to their conversation, but from Dante's expression figured he probably wasn't the best actor. He rubbed at his nose aggressively.  
  
  
"So! This is going to take way more days than is even necessary," Dante's smile stayed in place, even as he gave the nun a dark look, "but it looks like we're on track to getting you out of here."  


  
The matron hissed something under her breath, and Dante scuffed his boot against the ground in response, leaving a hard black line on the tiles and grinning all the while. A bit of Nero's apprehension went away at the immature action. Then the sentence worked its way through his head.  


  
"What do you mean it's gonna take longer than necessary?"  


  
Dante walked towards the wall opposite of Nero and leaned against it. He saw the matron twitch. Touching the walls in front of her wasn't allowed. She got very angry at them for 'rubbing the paint away' and getting the walls dirty. Dante couldn't have known that, but he looked like he was relishing in her irritation anyway.  
  
  
"Yeah, old maid here said I'm not allowed to adopt you because I'm an outsider, which is a lot of hooey, so it looks like we gotta get a DNA test done, then there's nothing she can do!"  
  
  
Nero was pretty sure his eyebrows shot through the roof.  
  
  
"But you're—"  
  
  
Dante's quick look shut him right up.  
  
  
"Yeah, I know! It's ridiculous! Look at us, obviously my kid, even without the _natural white hair,"_ he said, exasperatedly, "but whatever, might as well let science do the talking."  
  
  
Nero didn't know very much about science and DNA considering he was eight, but he was pretty sure this wasn't gonna work. You know, considering Dante _wasn't his father._  
  
  
_This is one of the stupidest plans I've ever heard of._

 

 

* * *

  
  
  
Nero had spent the last few days from when he last saw Dante half-heartedly gathering his things together and spending time with Kyrie and Credo. When Kyrie heard that he was (possibly) getting adopted by someone outside of Fortuna, she had immediately started crying and congratulating him, causing Nero and Credo to almost flutter around her, not quite sure what to do. Her sniffling soon turned to laughter at their panicked hand gestures and looks.  
  
  
"Nero, I'm so happy for you! You have a family! I'm just being selfish, sorry to worry you," she reassured him, rubbing her tears away with her sleeve. Credo immediately pulled out a handkerchief from God knows where for her to use instead.  
  
  
Nero rubbed at his nose self-consciously. "Yeah, well, you don't have to worry about never hearing from me again, I'll keep in touch.  I'll get the old man to give me his address when he gets back so I can give it you, that way we can send each other letters,"  
  
  
"Besides," he said, thinking about the stupid DNA test idea, "that's just if I _do_ get adopted. I dunno if it'll actually happen or not. Don't waste your tears on somethin' dumb as that."  
  
  
Kyrie puffed up a little. "I believe it'll happen! Why wouldn't it? A family member showing up after so many years, I bet it's the will of the Savior!"  
  
  
Credo nodded along with Kyrie's exclamation. "As much as I dislike the fact it's an outsider, it must be fate to have led him here after so long. No reason to doubt it."  
  
  
It was weird how Nero felt his stomach twist a bit at the mention of the Savior and yet also felt comforted by their words and conviction. He scrubbed at his nose harder and turned away from them, now feeling a little embarrassed.  
  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

 

 

* * *

 

  
  
Cut to 3 days later, and an extremely smug Dante was fitting an extremely confused Nero's bag into the backseat of a cherry red convertible.  
  
  
Questions would have to wait, however, as he was busy handing over the scribbled address of his new home to an almost smug looking Kyrie. Guess he was trading one smug person for another.  
  
  
"Yeah, okay, I guess you guys were right." He said, waving it off. He then hesitated. "'m gonna miss you."  
  
  
Kyrie took that as an invitation to latch onto him like a barnacle, causing him to stumble a bit, smushing her face into his shirt all the while. Credo laid a hand on his shoulder as well, his strength steadying in more ways than one. Nero's lip wobbled a little.  
  
  
"If he doesn't respect your identity or help you out, you can run away and come right back. You know we'll accept you here." Credo's voice was as firm as his grip and just as kind.  
  
  
Nero took in a shaky breath, thankful for the older teens words of support. He _was_ about to hit puberty, and he had no idea what it was going to be like to be outside the surprisingly accepting city for when it happened. Weird religion aside, at least they were pretty cool about his gender.  
  
  
Nero exhaled steadily. "I think I'll be fine. But yeah, if anything pops up, I'll let you know."  
  
  
That was when Dante decided to beep the horn at them like a jerk.  
  
  
"Sorry to interrupt y'all's moment, just wanted to give a heads up that we gotta be leaving soon!"  
  
  
Credo made a quiet comment about Dante being uncivilized under his breath before tightening his grip on Nero's shoulder and then releasing him. Kyrie took a bit longer to let go, and when she did, her face was damp.  
  
  
"I already started working on my letter to you," her voice wavered, and Nero had to avert his gaze before her emotions got to him even more.  
  
  
"Good. I can't wait to read it."  
  
  
Letting her go, he turned towards the car and hopped in, still avoiding eye contact with everyone. Dante stayed there idling for a moment.  
  
  
"How much trouble do you think I'd get in if I told those two to hop in the car as well and drove off with them."  
  
  
Nero whipped his head around to gape at him, his thoughtful expression displaying little care over the fact he would be committing a crime.  
  
  
"You'd go through getting me legally, just to turn around and kidnap them without a care?"  
  
  
Dante grimaced. "I mean, I guess?"  
  
  
Nero snorted at that, feeling light even with the tears burning at his eyes. Dante moved the car out of park and started heading towards the main gate.  
  
  
"They wouldn't come, they love this place too much. Besides, I'm pretty sure Credo would attack you."  
  
  
"Wouldn't be the first time, probably wouldn't be the last."  
  
  
Dante then glanced at him, taking in the tears starting to leak down his face.  
  
  
"I'm sorry. You didn't have to come with me. Blood isn't everything."  
  
  
Nero shook his head vigorously, scrubbing at his face with his sleeve. "No, I wanted to."  
  
  
_And speaking of blood,_  
  
  
"How did you get me out of the orphanage anyway? You said you weren't my dad, so the DNA test shouldn't have worked!"  
  
  
The expression that Dante made fit the phrase 'the cat that ate the canary' perfectly.  
  
  
"I'm not your dad, yeah, but I am his identical twin. Didn't know for sure if it would work, but it looks like I hit the jackpot." Nero really didn't know how he possibly look more smug, but somehow he did. Man, he really did trade one smug bother for another.  
  
  
"Identical twin? Really?"  
  
  
"Yep!"  
  
  
"Let me guess, was he an evil twin, too?"  
  
  
"Hey! He, well, I mean, I wouldn't go _that_ far—"  
  
  
Nero rolled his eyes. Right. Evil twin. Of course. Like he hadn't heard that before.  
  
  
"—Not that you have to call me Uncle or anything, Dante is fine, uncle is just kind of weird to be honest, I'm way too young to be an uncl— Hey, are you even listening?"  
  
  
"Yeah, yeah, sure."  
  
  
_"Hey!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nero was pretty surprised when he finally found out Dante wasn't lying about the whole identical twin thing.
> 
> Also FUCK IT, trans Nero. I do what I want.
> 
> And, as always, please leave a comment! Seriously, they are incredibly motivating! Just a simple "I liked it!" can make my day!


	5. Poor Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero's not a big fan of whatever's going on here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was visiting family for Easter and didn't have my laptop, sorry!  
> This was a chapter I already had written, I decided to just throw it out 'cause y'all deserve an update.

 

 

Nero's first impression of Trish was... a lot. And not very good.  


  
He'd been upstairs when she'd arrived, but he'd felt her approach before she started breaking the doors down with her motorcycle and stabbing Dante in the chest. Her presence had caused an uncomfortable tingling sensation that left him feeling itchy and jittery. That along with the fact that she, again, stabbed Dante, broke their doors, and then hauled Dante off for a big job? Nope. Not a fan at all.  


  
The fact she looked like Eva didn't help. It was really weird. Also really hecking suspicious.  


  
"Kid, Nero, c'mon. It'll be a quick and easy job, nothing to worry about."  


  
Nero continued to glower at the strange tingly demon lady and Dante, crossing his arms tensely. Dante wasn't _acting_ like it would be a normal job. There was something dark and hard and angry in his face that he didn't like. Nero scowled harder.  


  
"Stop lying."  


  
Dante blinked at Nero. He looked like confused. Probably because of his emotions. Nero knew those were plenty hard. The old man's eyes darted towards the blonde demon impatiently waiting by the remains of the door, before seeming to decide the audience didn't matter, not like that was unusual.  


  
Nero found himself scooped up into Dante's arms before he could even blink, clutched to his chest. Nero wanted to wiggle and kick, but something about the situation and the atmosphere had him clutching onto Dante's jacket instead. He pretended like his sniffing was just him taking in Dante's scent. Tears are dumb. He also decided that latching his teeth onto the lapel of his red jacket and chewing on it was a perfectly acceptable way to show his displeasure and make himself feel better.

  
  
Dante quietly whined a bit about 'little baby hellion teeth marks' and Nero bit down a little harder. He felt the man's hand came up to cup his head, gently rubbing with thumb. He loosened his grip.

  
  
"Alright, you caught me, it's not gonna be a normal mission—"  


  
—Nero's teeth tightened—  


  
"—But it's fine. I'm gonna come back and you'll probably have grown sooo attached to Lady at that point that you'll go 'Ugh, Dante's here, party's over' when I do show up!"  


  
Nero finally completely released him, just to turn and give the big idiot holding him an angry look. He was pretty good at those.

  
  
"That's stupid. You're stupid."  


  
Dante cooed and, completely ignoring that they were _in front of someone,_ hoisted Nero up higher to rub his cheek against like the entire side of his head.  


  
He immediately started squirming and pushing at Dante's face, "Stop, that's embarrassing, cut it out!"  


  
Dante did, but he had a smile on his face that would be really nice if it wasn't so embarrassing. Nero tried very hard to remain serious and not accidentally smile back. It wasn't very hard to do when he remembered what was going on. The not-Eva lady wasn't facing them, but he thought he felt her eyes on them even though he couldn't tell for sure because of her sunglasses. He decides to try and focus on wiping any spit off of Dante's jacket instead of the thoughts running through his head like crazy.  


  
"Come back soon," he mumbled, foot tapping against Dante's thigh agitatedly. The older man hummed, and Nero felt like he could feel Dante's smile against the top his head, like sunbeams on a good napping spot.  


  
"I will. I promise."  


  
The boy felt his insides settle a little.  


  
Dante shifted his grip on Nero, placing back down on the floor.  


  
"Lady will be here in a couple of minutes. Tell her the door definitely wasn't my fault and that I'll owe her one for the last minute babysitting."  


  
Nero puffed up in offense.  


  
"I'm not a baby!"  


 

Dante went to respond, but the blonde woman cut him off.  


  
"Tick-tock Dante; we have to go."  


  
Nero turned a nasty look at her and stuck his tongue out at her. She stuck her middle finger up at him, and Dante immediately appeared in front of Nero, blocking his view.  


  
"WOAH, hey, watch the language!"  


  
Nero peered around Dante's legs to stare at the woman, but she was already facing away, heading out the door. He stuck his middle finger up and his tongue out at her fading back anyway, quickly stopping before Dante could turn to see him. Not that he knew what it meant, but still. There was a pause as the two hybrids watched as she disappeared, and then Nero turned his attention back to his guardian. The older man was fidgeting, rhythmically touching all his finger to his thumb and chewing at his lip almost faster than it could heal. Nero tugged at his pants leg, snapping him out of whatever daze he was in. Dante's hard expression faded away a bit when he turned to look down at him. Nero felt a little bubble of pride at that.

 

  
"Don't start chewing on your lips, they're gonna get chapped," he paused, "also you owe me ice cream once you get back."  


  
"Oh yeah? I owe you?" Dante cracked a smile at him, "Don't worry, I have the feeling we'll be eating a lot of ice cream after I get back."  


  
"We better," he huffed, and then felt Dante ruffle his hair and watched as he walked out into the night, fading away from Nero with every step.  


  
When the man finally disappeared completely from his sense, Nero made his way around to climb into Dante's chair, curling up in the soft leather. He just had a bad feeling about this.  
  


 

 

  
  
Lady showed up not even a minute later, skidding into view of the busted doors on her motorcycle and practically flying off of it in her hurry to get inside.  


  
_"DANTE—!"_

  
  
She stopped, however, when she saw Nero still curled up on the chair. She sighed.  


  
"He already left, didn't he?"  


  
Nero simply nodded.

  


She sighed again.  


  
Taking in the damage, which included a whole entire busted motorcycle next to the desk and chunks of door all over the place, she seemed to give up on doing anything about it for now. Her eyes seemed to linger on Rebellion, which he actually hadn’t even noticed be left behind. Had Dante taken someone else? It almost seemed like Lady knew something. He would have to bug her about it. After a beat, she turned towards Nero, propping her hands on her hips and quirking a brow at him. Despite the stiffness of her posture, her eyes seemed to radiate mischief.  


  
"C'mon kiddo, let's go get some food. Dinner's on the stupid lug."  


  
Nero felt a smile break through at that and quickly hopped off the chair and ran over, only hesitating a little before reaching out to grab Lady's hand. Besides, she looked like she needed the comfort.  


  
"Take-out?"  
  


She grimaced. "Absolutely _not_ take-out. Let's find a nicer place, make him feel sorry for being an idiot."  


  
Nero's smile wavered at the reminder that Dante out there with some strange demon and that Lady didn't even know where he was in case he needed back-up. Lady caught his look and muttered something under her breath that he couldn't quite catch, even with his enhanced hearing. She swung their clasped hands back and forth, shaking him out of it.  


  
"Don't ever tell him I said this, but Dante's incredible. I've seen first hand how he's taken on everything that's been thrown at him. I doubt there's anything in the world that could keep him from coming back home."

  
  
Nero rubbed his cheek against the back of her hand, feeling a bit lighter at her honest words.

  
  
"Yeah?"

  
  
She smiled.

  
  
"Yeah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nero POV! Huzzah! And poor Lady. It's a good thing she adores Nero or else she'd never come around anymore, what with how often they end up alone together.
> 
> We've jumped ahead about two years or so from the last chapter, but it won't stay like that!
> 
> Also a reminder that I love comments, even more so than kudos lol. What can I say, I like compliments and when people point out things they noticed or liked!! Not saying I don't appreciate kudos, 'cause I do, they help me slowly crawl my way to the top of this AO3 fandom, but still ;^)


	6. Ew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero's curiosity has been peaked.

 

Nero had only met Lady a few times so far. She always seemed to be busy with her own stuff, constantly on the move and taking jobs. He wasn’t sure if this was the fourth or fifth time seeing her, but it was definitely an... _interesting_ time.

 

He’d been about to go downstairs when he heard her and Dante’s voices steadily getting louder. Deciding to forgo lunch for now, he almost immediate went into sneaking mode. Crouching down, he quietly descended about two steps, thanking his lucky stars that the dingy wooden boards didn’t creak, and then slowly peered through the bars of the bannister to try and see what was going on.

 

Lady and Dante seemed to be having some sort of argument, and it obviously wasn’t going too well. Lady had a snarl on her face as she stood basically pressed against the front of Dante’s desk and one of her guns was almost touching Dante’s forehead, not that the man seemed to be threatened at all from his body language, leaning back just like normal in his beaten up leather chair.

 

They weren’t talking anymore, just staring each other down, and Nero thought that he had missed the fight entirely until they suddenly sprung into action.

 

Dante dodged to the side as Lady actually fired the gun, then darted forth and _grabbed the gun with his teeth,_ yanking it out of her hand and tossing it into the air with a flick of his head. Snatching it out of the air, he pointed it right back at Lady who already had another gun out and directed at him.

 

There was another two beats of silence.

 

Nero couldn’t decide if that was massively cool or stupidly over the top.

 

Unfortunately it looked like it was leaning towards “massively cool”.

 

Lady was the one who finally broke the silence, flicking the safety on and angrily slamming her gun onto the desk in one fluid motion. “Fine. Fine! Mess with my work all you want! Damn it, Dante!”

 

She whipped around and went to grab her biking jacket, the Kalina Ann swinging behind her. Lady was picture of barely contained fury, but Dante didn’t seem to care and immediately moved to block her path. Nero couldn’t see her expression at this point, but he figured she probably looked even angrier now. He wondered what had gotten the usually calm woman so riled up and how relaxed Dante seemed to be despite the simmering rage. Dante grabbed her by her shoulders and held her there, looking surprisingly serious. Even more surprising was the way that Lady seemed to deflate a little from his actions.

 

“You don’t need to do this every year,” Dante said.

 

“I…” Lady’s head dropped forward a bit. “I know. I _know,_ ” she let out a small huff of air that could’ve been a laugh, “Aren’t you sounding so mature though? Guess parenthood is doing good for you.”

 

This time Dante let out the small laugh. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he rolled his eyes dramatically. He sobered after a beat. “I,” he made some face Nero couldn’t decipher, “I care about you, Lady. I don’t like to see you do this every year. So yeah, I pulled a couple of strings,” he shrugged, “it’s shit, yeah, but what you’ve been doing is worse.”

 

Lady was silent.

 

Then she did something that surprised Nero, because even if he hadn’t know her for very long, he did know that she rarely parted with the Kalina Ann. And that’s what she did. Lady carefully swung the massive weapon off of her back and shoved it into a confused looking Dante’s hands. She then continued with her previous goal of grabbing her jacket, acting so casually compared to her previous anger that it almost gave Nero whiplash. Turning to make her leave, she threw a blase wave over her shoulder, only pausing a moment at the door to say “I’ll be back for it later. If it gets damaged, I’m fining you.”

 

 

Dante looked up from where he’d been staring at the Kalina Ann, But the doors were already swinging shut behind Lady. He stood there for a bit and then sighed and shook his head and went back to his desk, hanging the rocket launcher across the back of his chair and then flopping into it himself.

 

 

Nero fidgeted from his place high on the steps.

 

_I wanna ask about it_ **_now._ ** _But I gotta wait. Give it some time so it’s not suspicious._

 

He fidgeted a bit more. _Okay, harder plan than expected._

 

After like a whole minute, Nero quietly got up and then tramped down the stairs, same volume as usual. He made his way to the incredibly sparse kitchen and pulled a slice of pizza out of the fridge. Deciding to forgo heating it up, he darted back into the main room and scrambled onto the top of Dante’s big desk, pizza shoved into his mouth for both safekeeping and optimal hand usage.

  
  


Nero tried to just eat his pizza in peace.

 

...Finally, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity anymore.

 

“So what was that about?”

 

Dante sighed, rubbing his heels of his palms against his eyes. He looked pretty tired. Nero wondered if he got enough sleep last night. His eyes stayed shut, head tilted towards the ceiling.

 

“Today is… the anniversary of something that happened that hurt Lady a lot. Every year she ends up doing something stupid and getting herself into trouble even though she’s smarter than that and the fact that it’s _my_ job to be the stupid reckless one.”

 

Nero didn’t pry any more than that. He knew he had to ask Lady if he wanted to know more about this weird day and what it meant.

 

_Topic off-limits._

 

  
Another questioned popped into his mind soon after, however.

 

Nero innocently chewed on some pepperoni.

 

Dante, almost like he could feel Nero’s new spark of curiosity, rolled his head onto his shoulder and cracked an eye open at Nero.

 

“So, like... are you and Lady dating or something?”

 

Dante’s eyes snapped open fully to stare at Nero in surprise, before slamming shut as he started wheezing with laughter.

 

Not what Nero was expecting, but alright.

 

Dante took a moment to stop snickering, hunched over the desk now instead of leaning back. Nero totally waited patiently, working at his pizza crust.

 

...Alright, he got irritated thirty seconds in and shoved at Dante’s head, rocking it a bit from where it was pressed against the scuffed up wood of the desk. Dante didn’t even pull his head up when he retaliated, reaching out with perfect accuracy to mess up Nero’s head, the jerk. It was unfair! Nero couldn’t even try and get out of the way without tipping over the edge of the desk!

  


_Finally_ stopping, Dante looked up at Nero with a wide smile, his eyes glassy from how much the idiot had been laughing. It wasn’t even a dumb question! Nero huffed to show Dante he was irritated. The old man held up his hands in surrender.

 

“No, we definitely aren’t dating,” his voice showed that he was still extremely amused.

 

Nero gave him an agitated look. “It wasn’t a dumb question, you two seem close,” he grumbled.

 

Dante’s smile stayed in place, but was more fond than amused now. “Yeah, we are. She’s my best friend.” He leaned back once more and rolled his shoulders.

 

_Haha, trying to shake off his feelings._

 

Nero thought a bit more on it. “So why _don’t_ you date?”

 

Dante snorted again and Nero got afraid of having to deal with another laughing fit. Thankfully he managed to avoid it.

 

“Just because I’m good friends with her doesn’t mean I wanna date her. And besides, we’re not really each other’s type.”

 

At Nero’s questioning look, he sighed and rolled his eyes, but continued. “I’m not into that kind of stuff, the whole,” he makes a vague hand-wave-y gesture, “ _dating_ thing, and _she_ is much more interested in women than men.”

 

Nero blinked rapidly in response, definitely not expecting that. He turned those new ideas over in his head for a moment before nodding.

 

“Yeah, you’re way too lame for a partner, it’s for the best.”

 

He thought for another moment, then nodded again, this time in wise way.

 

“Lady’s too good for men, so that’s for the best too.”

 

Dante just started laughing again. “Yeah? I agree.”

 

“Good.” Nero then realized something. “Glad to know I won’t have to deal with some weird random step-whatever type deal too.”

 

Dante pulled a face at the thought. “Ew. Marriage.”

 

Nero just nodded again in total agreement. Marriage was very ew. He was doing a lot of nodding, actually. To be fair, there were a lot of things that should be nodded at. With. Towards. He nodded some more. Dante nodded back. They spent a minute or so just kind of nodding at each other. It was surprisingly nice. Then his stomach rumbled. Nero hopped off the desk.

 

“Okay, conversation over, I need more pizza.”

 

“Bring the whole box out with ya!”

 

Nero popped the upper part of his body out of the kitchen, a single slice in his hand. He then looked Dante in the eye and slobbered all over it. Dante looked aghast.

 

“That was the last slice. You need to order more.”

 

Nero dipped back inside, smiling to himself over the childish wail he heard through the doorway in response. Yeah, things were fine the way they were.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to comment and/or leave a kudos if you enjoyed it!
> 
> I have... one chapter waiting in the wings, but I feel like it needs more time and maybe a chapter or two or three before it's ready to come out. (Sorry Le, looks like we'll have to wait to see if you cry or not.)
> 
> BUT YEAH! Shit's good. Also I finally got around to making a real-deal age chart and wow I'm glad I did. I basically know Dante's off the top of my head, but Nero keeps messing me up. I'm not built for thinking about numbers for more than 12 seconds at a time lmao
> 
> See y'all again in a couple of days, hopefully!


	7. FLOOR SOAP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Dante Has A Freakout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE REACHED 2,000 HITS AND 200 KUDOS!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

 

DNA test. A DNA test. The shit was processing at some lab somewhere, so now he just had three or so days until he got confirmation.

 

It was probably gonna work.

 

  
... _What the shit._

 

Haha. Dope! He was going to adopt a kid.

 

**_What the shiiiiiit._ **

 

Dante’s face felt frozen into a smile, but it probably wasn’t a very pleasant expression to look at. Probably decently crazed. What the hell was he thinking?! A kid?? He didn’t even know if they were related, he was flying by the seat of his pants! What do you even do with children! What do they eat!! Do they need to eat?! Okay, probably, just because he didn’t really have to doesn’t mean a hypothetical 1/4th devil child would be able to do the same. Would he have to get a proper kitchen? There _was_ a bit of space in the back, so he guessed he could use that. As a kitchen. Because he was probably going to need to cook or something if he was _taking care of a child._

 

Back to freaking out.

 

At least the drive back to his shop was nothing to sneeze at, so he had plenty of time to sit in his care and think about what the hell he just did.

 

…

 

Okay, he didn’t.

 

He kind of just put on some music and jammed out for the entire good hour and a half drive.

 

What could he say? He wasn’t very good at the concentrating thing unless he was in a fight or something. Like sure Dante was freaked out during the drive, but it was more of a distant “Oh, you’re _really_ in it now” kind of deal instead of punching him in his frontal lobe. God he was rambling. Rambling internally of all things. Funny how that could happen sometimes.

 

Pulled around the back of Devil May Cry, Dante just… sat in his car; body like head, weighing him down in his seat.

 

“I really am a giant dumbass,” Dante spoke aloud. Sure there was music blasting, but it still wasn’t enough. Speaking aloud would probably help.

 

He felt like his bones were vibrating.

 

Okay, he probably was still freaking out pretty hard. Just a little. He pressed his hands into his eyes, hoping futilely that that would somehow make everything chill the fuck out just a little bit more. His thoughts felt like a goddamn ball-and-paddle game, bouncing around precariously off the insides of his skull. His chest tightened a bit.

 

What was he going to _do?_

 

Dante wasn’t exactly the paragon of responsibility, and probably never would be! How the hell was he supposed to raise a child?! He hadn’t even really been raised! He didn’t know how this was supposed to go!

 

God, the closest he’d come to having a mother since he was 8 was Nell. He gently touched his trusty pistols, the only things he had left of her, but tried to quickly brush the thought away. Trying to dislodge all the cacophonous shit going on in his head, Dante shook his head and then forcefully hauled himself out of the driver’s seat, heading inside through the back entrance.

 

A light flickered on in his head.

 

Picking up speed, he quickly made his way through, not even bothering to take his customary seat in favor of sitting on his desk right next to his phone.

 

Rapidly putting the number in, he slung one of his legs over the other and waited. It wasn’t long before it was picked up. He interrupted whatever opening spiel she had planned.

 

“Lady I need your help I need to know how to raise a kid and also probably need money for whatever crap I need to buy--” he looked around his grungy office-space-slash-house, “soap?? I need soap. I think. What kind of soap do you need to clean floors. Do you use soap to clean walls too? _I think I have to clean the walls._ Lady is cleaning walls a thing? Is that what people do? What if his nose is really sensitive and he’s bugged by the smell? Like everything smells bad to me so I can’t really tell sometimes I’m just so used to i-- Lady? Lady are you there?”

 

There was silence on the other end.

 

 _“...What..?”_ her voice was crackled and tinny, but still managed to sound stunned. He was feeling pretty goddamned stunned himself, so he understood.

 

He tried gathering himself.

 

“I need… floor soap.”

 

More silence, this time distinctly incredulous. That he was extremely familiar with that at this point.

 

There was an exhalation.

 

 _“Fucking_ **_what?_ ** _”_

 

Dante gestured with his hands, making the vague shape of a bottle, even though she couldn’t see it.

 

“...Soap…?”

 

 _“No, no, just.. Stop.”_ he could hear the vague sound of movement, _“Right, okay, I guess I’m dropping by your shitshow soon then. Because I doubt this is gonna work out over the phone.”_

 

Dante shrugged helplessly at the phone.

 

“Yeah, probably not.”

 

Lady laughed a little. _“Disaster. I should be over in an hour or so. Then you can repeat whatever the fuck you saying because all I got was ‘kid’ and ‘soap’. Got it?”_

 

“Got it.”

 

_“Fantastic. Try and calm down before I get there so you don’t hyperventilate and then throw up on me like a tiny, anxious little dog.”_

 

“Why I _never—_ ” but the dial tone was already sounding. Dante started at the handset, offended.  
  
  
“I’m not— _‘anxious little dog’_ , God.”

 

It was almost a little disgusting how much that had calmed him down. Dante grimaced and finally hung up the phone, probably a little harder than necessary, but who really cared.

 

The burst of emotion died of fairly quickly and he was left sitting on his desk, staring at the doors.

 

_What am I supposed to do with a child?_

 

His mind briefly flickered back to his old life, to being Tony, to his old partner and said older man's daughters, to playing games and eating meals with them, but even just a passing thought makes his stomach clench and churn.

 

He shunted the thoughts and memories off to the side, trying to focus on the fact that logically, he hadn’t been especially _bad_ with kids. They had liked him well enough. A flash of memories, again, this time of his old partner's eldest child, Jessica, of her body connected to the demonic tree and it feeding off of her suffering and him having to— he shrugged violently and bit the inside of his cheek, hopping off his desk and heading towards the fridge. Might as well figure out if he should move it to the back room. Kitchen. Making a kitchen. Reorganizing. Tony Redgrave doesn’t exist anymore and there’s nothing to think about.

 

Dante’s mind went silent, thankfully, nothing in it to bother him, focusing on the sounds around him instead. The cars in the distance on the road far off across from his shop, the quiet wind and how one of the window panes in the small guest bedroom upstairs rattled from it, the aged wooden floors and the creaking as they settled more and more as it got closer towards the end of the day.

 

He inhaled once, held it, and then exhaled and grabbed Rebellion and lanced it towards the demon skull attached to the dart board, sending bone shards flying through the air with a loud _thunk_ , fading from existence before they hit the floor. Rebellion seemed to give him a look from its new place in the wall. He groaned a little.

 

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

 

The feeling of judgement stopped, so Dante assumed he’d been forgiven.

 

_Good one, moron._

 

He definitely didn’t whine a little.

 

Pulling Rebellion out of the now basically useless dark board, he turned back towards the fridge. Right. Kitchen time.

 

...He hoped Lady got there soon.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you dearly Ro for blessing me with your oversight. I adore you, you creativity beast.
> 
> ALSO I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT THE LONG WAIT MY DUDES. I've been working a lot and also didn't really feel like it. Then suddenly I looked down and it'd been 2 weeks. F.
> 
> Edit: Thank you Le for pointing out shit I had to clear up lmao ily!!
> 
> Anyway!! Please comment and/or kudos if you haven't already! That stuff keeps me going!  
> Thank you for reading 💕


	8. Parenting for Dummies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of FLOOR SOAP

 

 

The first thing Lady noticed upon entering Devil May Cry was that it looked like a war zone, but in a very unexpected way. Usually when the place looked like a whirlwind had passed through it, there  _ had _ been one, albeit one named Dante, and it was typically caused by some sort of Hellish thing making its way into the place and Dante completely wrecking shop in the process of ‘styling’ on it. 

  
  


God, even just thinking that phrase made her miserable. Was his whole family like this? Just constantly unbearably over-dramatic? Thinking briefly back to his twin and his behavior, she took a wild guess and said yes, that’s just how the blood of Sparda worked. God only knows how her ancestor god along with the man (devil?), especially so if the drama-filled blood was more concentrated at the source.

 

There was an empty space where the fridge once was and her nose wrinkled at the dirty outline displaying where it’d once been. Some of Dante’s poster’s are now gone too, as well as a good chunk of the weapons, the only ones left being the ones found higher up on the wall. 

Dante grabbed Lady by her upper arms, his gaze wild and searching.

  
  


"How often... do humans have to eat."

  
  


She's sharp, she can't afford to not be, but Dante is truly skilled at throwing her through a fucking loop.

  
  


"...How often... do humans... have to eat?"

  
  


Making some vaguely-inhuman noise in the back of his throat, he shook his head and explained. "I don't have to eat often? I think? I don't really know how long I can go because it's not something I'm really in a rush to test, but I know I have to eat a lot less often than humans do, and I'm worried so I need to know. How often do people have to eat? Like I know people eat like every day but is that necessary? Do you need to eat less? Do you need to eat _more?"_

  
  


Lady's eyes narrowed into slits.

  
  


"You don't need to eat often."

  
  


Dante cut off his quiet muttering and turned his attention back to her with a confused "Yeah?"

  
  


"...So you've been wasting all this goddamn money on pizza when you could be paying me back with that instead?!?!"

  
  


Dante's jaw dropped, then snapped shut. He let out a sheepish laugh and released her, leaning back a bit. "No?"

  
  


Her hands spasmed towards her holsters, absolutely fuming, but she reigned in her ire. “...Why do you need to know that? Like you said, you don’t have to eat,” she shot another nasty look at him, “ _ apparently. _ ” So what if she relished in his cowed expression a bit? She deserved to.

  
  


“ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵏᶦᵈ”

  
  


“...What? I couldn’t hear that. Speak up, Dante.”

  
  


“...Actually I changed my mind and I think this is a bad idea. Okay thank you for your help (actually you didn’t really even help, I still don’t know how much people should eat), but yeah anyway thank you for stopping by! It was great to see ya! As blisteringly hot as usual, if not more so! Absolute knock-out! The door is that way and you are now totally free to leave, thank you!”

  
  


Lady’s deadpan look hopefully said all that needed to be said.

  
  


Judging by the silver hybrid’s whole ‘butter can’t melt in my mouth’ schtick he was trying (and failing) to pull, though, she guessed it didn’t quite convey how unimpressed she was.

“So… I may… have… adoptedachild?”   
  
  
Wow. And here she thought she couldn’t physically couldn’t look more stony.

  
  


“You  _ what?”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _   
_ Dante grimaced.

  
  


“I… am in the process of adopting. A child.”

  
  


“… **_Why?_ ** ”   
  
  
Dante’s expression turned into something more serious, only just preventing her from completely losing her cool at the massive idiot standing in front of her.   
  
  
“...He’s Vergil’s.”

  
  


…Well then.

  
  


“Vergil.”

  
  


A nod.

  
  


“As in your twin brother, Vergil.”

  
  


Another nod, this time accompanied by an eye-roll. Lady jabbed a finger at him threateningly. 

  
  


“Don’t sass me you moron, I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept of that prick getting someone  _ pregnant.” _

  
  


Dante grimaced.

  
  


“Eugh, don’t remind me.”

  
  


Lady stayed silent for a moment. Her gaze wandered around Dante’s home-office, analyzing the mess and all the missing things. He was serious. And that was… big. Not just him being serious, though it could be a pain and a half trying to get him to be serious unless he was in one of his moods, no, this was  _ family _ . The  _ last  _ of his family. Dante stared her down, and she wondered what he would say if he saw his own expression right now. She didn’t think she had ever seen him look afraid before, but there it was, lurking in his gaze. 

  
  


She closed her eyes.

  
  


This was a devil- human hybrid who was careless, reckless, lazy, a danger to himself and his surroundings-- he was one of the last people she could envision raising a child. 

  
  


She exhaled noisily.

  
  


He was also, somehow, probably one of the only people she believed could actually be halfway decent at it, if he actually tried and didn’t act like a complete idiot. Provided he didn’t fuck up. Which he was incredibly liable to do.

  
  


She opened her eyes.

  
  


Dante was fidgeting in front of her, pushing around an old pizza box that was sitting on his desk, obviously concerned about her response. She smothered the warm feeling in her chest. She had never expected to actually be friends with a devil, but here she was.

  
  


Lady sighed again. Dante stared at her, absolutely failing at being subtle. Idiot. 

  
  


“You honestly really don’t need any special soap for floors. You _can_ get some, but it's not really necessary.”

  
  


Dante perked up like some kind of excitable dog.

  
  


“So…”

  
  


Lady glared the devil hunter down.

  
  


“I’m telling you now, if you screw this up, I  **_will_ ** kill you.”

  
  


Dante just grinned at her.

  
  


“I know, I know-- I’m relying on that.”

  
  


Lady physically stopped herself from jumping this idiot and strangling him.

  
  


Asshole.

  
  


She gave a tiny smile back.  


 

“Okay now seriously, get your ass into gear. It’s time to clean this dump up.”

  
  


And with that she plopped down onto his desk, cracking open the pizza box on his desk to see if there was anything edible inside.

  
  


“You aren’t going to help me?!”

  
  


Lady snorted, pausing to give him an unimpressed look.

  
  


“Absolutely not. But I  _ will  _ sit here and boss you around. Be grateful.”

  
  


She grabbed the last slice of pizza. Ah, still warm. Nice.

  
  


“Now go grab every single bit of cleaning supplies in this dump and bring them here. You’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  
  


Dante grumbled, but set off to go find the supplies. Lady reclined across the top of the desk, taking a bite out of her pilfered slice. 

  
  


Hm, maybe this would turn out okay. Only time would tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And after that, Lady proceeded to verbally drill this clown about child care. She was even tempted to read passages of Parenting for Dummies out loud. She didn't but he definitely has the book on his desk.
> 
> ANYWAY! Sorry about the, uh, 7 month delay. I actually had this half-written for most of that time, just couldn't get around to finishing it. I don't usually go back and read my stuff so if there's anything stupid going on with the writing, let me know please lmao.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	9. Leaf Off of the Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I've had like eight whole years to figure out the whole emotions thing and all I've learned in that time is that I hate myself and also I am sad." —Dante, probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this sitting in my drafts, so. Might as well!
> 
> Also I posted a little what-if AU thing, officially making the Little Fang-verse a Thing

 

 

So, uh, Dante had kind of forgotten to tell the kid he was half devil. And that the kid was one-fourth devil. Which wasn't like, _that_ big of an issues, except for when he came back from a job like two or three weeks after picking up said kid with his back basically gored.  
  
  
Over half of his coat missing because he screwed up a dodge and the bull-like got him right in the back and just... sliced it off with its horn. And also almost yanked his spine right out of him, but _whatever—_ his coat! Looked like he was wearing a weird crop top now. It had been holding onto dear life by some threads in the front, but he ended up just ripping it off fully because 1.) didn't want to trip over the saggy fabric and 2.) whipping around the long red fabric like he was a matador was _reeeaaally_ tempting.  
  
  
_Stop getting distracted,_ he scolded himself. Okay, listen, he didn't know what the hell to do so his mind was kind of scattered okay? Right. Okay. Nero in front of him. Blood everywhere. The kid hadn't seen his back yet, but this was probably pretty disturbing on its own.  
  
  
Shit, was that a hole in his abdomen? He tried to subtly readjust his coat to cover the healing wound, but the now crop top was ineffective and failed that mission. Dante gave up and just pressed a hand to the wound. Nero was still looking shocked and hasn't moved. Maybe he hasn't seen? That would be awkward. That would probably mess a kid up right?? Oh god he had no idea what he was doing. No wait okay he totally had this.  
  
  
"Uh.. I'm fine?" Did his voice crack? Maybe the  demon got his neck too and he was too irritated to notice. He used his free hand to rub at his throat. Nope, all good.  
  
  
Man his brain felt scattered, even more than usual.  
  
  
Nero blinked, then blinked 11 more times very rapidly, and settled back down from being on his toes. Did he just kind of do that sometimes? Seemed to be a response to stress. That was pretty funny and kinda cute. Right. No. Focus. Nero was talking.  
  
  
"That isn't your blood?"  
  
  
Dante couldn't help the face he pulled.  
  
  
"No, it is, but I'm fine! I'm already healing."  
  
  
Nero looked alarmed again.  
  
  
_Man_ he really wanted to sit down for this conversation. His chair looked so comfortable. A strawberry sundae sounded nice, too. Dante let out a sigh.  
  
  
"Okay kid, this is gonna be a weird conversation, but better now than in 11 years, amiright?" His admittedly weak joke that was only kind of funny to himself anyway did not help the situation.  
  
  
Really wanting the kid to not get a look at his back, he scooped Nero up into his arms and carried him to his desk, plopping the kid on top of it and then taking a seat himself— _after_ putting the remnants of his coat over the back of it. The smell of blood was fine, but still, he didn't _really_ want it soaked into his chair. Oh he was so right, sitting down felt fantastic. Nero stared down at him from his wooden perch, unamused. His voice reflected that well.  
  
  
"You better not be about to die. Not unless your magic twin is about to appear and start taking care of me instead. I need a guardian, you know."  
  
  
Dante groaned aloud. "I shouldn't have even told you about him. Would've spared me from all these evil twin jokes. You know he's real! You've seen pictures! Why do you still do this!"  
  
  
Nero simply shrugged, "It's funny."  
  
  
Dante snorted and then proceeded to burst out laughing. "Yeah, bud?"  
  
  
The kid just half-shrugged. "Yeah."  
  
  
"That's fair."  
  
  
Besides, it was kind of nice for Vergil to be in his brain as "mysterious magic twin who is Nero's dad" than "oh he's in hell and also probably dead". Dante cleared his throat. Right, devils. Hybrids.  
  
  
"So! You know about devils and demons and the likes, your old town worshipped one and I go kill 'em, yeah?"

 

Nero nodded.  
  
  
"Ahem. Right. So," okay he doesn't really know how to do this, think quickly, "Sparda. Yeah. he had kids with a human."  
  
  
Nero's eyebrows disappeared so quickly Dante could've sworn he heard a sonic boom.  
  
  
"But... he's..."  
  
  
Dante really hoped the kid didn't freak out with self-loathing, he didn't think the building would be able to stand under all that heaviness. That would su—  
  
  
"..He's a _bug_ ."  
  
  
Dante immediately wheezed so hard he sent himself into a coughing fit. He was going to start crying holy shit.  
  
"Sparda," he tried to gather himself, "could look human. _Did_ look human most of the time, I think."  
  
  
"You think?"  
  
  
"It's... complicated I guess. I didn't exactly see the dude a lot."  
  
  
"So... you're Sparda's descendent?"  
  
  
"Little more straight from the source, actually. He was my father."  
  
  
The kid gave him a weird and loaded look. Dante really didn't have the emotional capacity to unpack that, sorry. Try again in a few minutes or use some words. Nero seemed to pick up on that, thank god.  
  
  
"So...... you're half devil. And your devil dad is basically the god of Fortuna."  
  
  
"Yep. Also you're forgetting the fact that that makes you one-fourth devil and said dude's grandkid."  
  
  
The lightheartedness fled the air Nero grimaced. Dante felt his heart flip over in his chest. All joking aside, Dante was still messed up from all of his self loathing and his disdain for his devil side. He.. He really didn't want Nero to grow up the same way.  
  
  
God, who decided he would be a good parent? This was a terrible idea.  
  
  
Yeah, no, wait, it was him. That explains it.  
  
  
Dante leaned forward in his chair and reached out and gripped Nero's shoulder. The kid's eyes gradually dragged their way up from following the desk's wood grain to focus on his eyes.  
  
  
"You have to know this. I _need_ you to know this. You are human. Focus on that, okay? It's not— being part devil isn't the end of the world. It just has some added benefits, you know? Get some good healing and some nice senses out of it!"  
  
  
The kid broke eye contact. Dante wondered what they told him about devils in Fortuna. He felt a familiar hot flash of anger in this throat and loosened his grip on Nero out of concern, followed by a wave of self-loathing at the thought of ever hurting this small little thing on accident.  
  
  
_C’mon idiot, worry about the stupid cult city and mope later._  
  
  
"No, kid, seriously, look at me. Whatever mess you're thinking right now, I've got to get rid of it and end it now. Tell me what's on your mind."  
  
  
"What... makes us _different?_ I get _so_ **_angry_ ** sometimes and a lot of the time I can barely even stop myself from—..."  
  
Nero's voice died for a moment.  
  
"...Sometimes I don't even _want_ to stop myself, but I don't — I don't _want_ to hurt people. I don't want to be a monster," his voice cracked on the last word and Dante decided to say screw it and re-tightened his grip on the kid's shoulder and use it to pull Nero off of the desk and into his lap, literally dragging him into a hug.  
  
  
They didn't say anything for a while. Nero gathered himself and Dante thought about what a shitshow things could be. His heart ached; for the kid, for his own similar feelings, and for the fact he didn’t really know what to do. He felt the same way about himself. But seeing it on Nero, this _eight year old child_ , made his eyes burn. He hugged the boy a little tighter and cursed the blood flowing through his — their— veins . Finally, he spoke up.  
  
  
"You're not a monster and I don't think you ever will be one. No, I'm serious, listen. You... you _feel_ . You care about your friends, right? You cried over them. That's not me making fun of you, that's nothing to be ashamed of— those things are important. They make you more than your blood."  
  
  
Dante thought about the fact he wasn’t just talking to Nero, he was talking to the both of them. He's awful with words, truly terrible, so he was praying he could manage to convey what he intended. He really wished he had more time to prepare for this. He freed up a hand to scrub at his face with, the whole situation and the itch of his healed skin made him want to jump out a window and run around. But no.

 

“Trust me. I deal with demons every day. We are not like them, not in the ways that you think. Sure we may have some abominable anger management issues,” he felt Nero huff out a breath, “but we aren’t wild animals, and that’s what a vast majority of demons are! And besides, you gotta think of it this way,” and at that moment, Dante was hit with a realization, “most of the real monsters I’ve seen are humans. Like I said, demons are more like animals, they’re just driven by instinct. Humans, however, have the capacity to choose. Every person can make decisions and choose how they want to live their life, and that’s up to them and them alone. You’re a great kid Nero. I haven’t known you nearly as long as I should have and I’m sorry about that, but I know you enough to know you have a kind heart. I don’t think it’s physically possibly for you to even get _close_ to being a monster. Sure you _might_ be a bit on the explosively angry side, but you’ve got self control and you’ve got people you care about. And if it makes you feel any better, I’m here for you and I’ll always be willing to watch over you and keep your stinky little butt in line.”

  


_Ah, I’m never going to be very good with talking. I prefer stupid little comments and dumb jokes. I got sidetracked and distracted and probably hopped around a lot, but I hope he got the gist of it._

  


Nero didn’t respond, not verbally at least, but the tightening of his grip around Dante’s ribs and the feeling of tears starting to soak into his shirt made Dante feel like he probably did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me @ this bastard chapter That's Not How This Was Supposed To Go.
> 
> Dante doesn't know how to string together more than 5 sentences and also doesn't know how he's supposed to convince someone of something when he himself isn't convinced.


End file.
